In a joint announcement, the USTA and Mary Joe Fernandez, one of the longest-serving Fed Cup Captains in U.S. tennis history, today announced that after eight years of leadership, Fernandez will step down from her role as U.S. Fed Cup Captain. With this change in leadership, the role of Fed Cup captain will now include working very closely with USTA Player Development. The search for a new captain will begin immediately with the goal that a new captain will be named by the end of November.

“We greatly appreciate all that Mary Joe brought to the U.S. Fed Cup Team, including reaching two finals,” said USTA Chairman of the Board and President Katrina Adams. “She is highly regarded by all of the players, and has brought unparalleled experience and insight to the role. She will be missed.”

Adams also added the following: “Going forward, the role of the Fed Cup captain will be changing, and the captain will now work much more closely with USTA Player Development. The captain will attend Player Development training camps and will lend coaching support for players at a number of tournaments throughout the year. This new approach will place additional time demands on any Fed Cup captain over the course of the year.”

“Working with the players has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” said Fernandez. “I have been proud to represent the USA in this role. My only regret is we did not bring home the cup during my tenure as Captain. While the changes planned for the captain role are not a fit with my other work and family demands at this time, I plan to do my part to ensure a smooth transition to a new captain once selected, and continue to contribute where I can to the success of the USA Fed Cup Team.”

The U.S. Fed Cup Team will compete at home (location to be determined) against Germany on February 11-12, 2017.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Jan. 27, 2016– The USTA and United States Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez today announced that former world No. 1 and current world No. 10 Venus Williams, No. 26 Sloane Stephens, No. 42 CoCo Vandeweghe and world No. 3 doubles player Bethanie Mattek-Sands will represent the U.S. in the 2016 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II First Round against Poland.

The best-of-five match series will be played at the Holua Tennis Center at the Holua Resort at Mauna Loa Village in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Feb. 6-7. This will be the first Fed Cup tie held in Hawaii.

The winner of this match advances to the World Group Playoffs, held April 16-17, to compete for a spot in the 2017 World Group. The losing nation will play in the World Group II Playoffs in April to remain in World Group II in 2017.

Poland’s Fed Cup Captain Klaudia Jans-Ignacik named No. 93 Magda Linette, No. 159 Paula Kania, and Alicja Rosolska, ranked No. 44 in the world in doubles, to face Team USA. Jans-Ignacik, who is ranked No. 40 in doubles, is also part of the four-team roster as a playing captain

“We have great variety and depth on our team for Hawaii,” said Fernandez. “I am thrilled to have Venus, one of tennis’ greatest champions, competing for us. Sloane had a strong start to the season, winning Auckland for her second tour singles title, and CoCo and Bethanie are both playing really well in singles and doubles. Poland brings a skilled team and we look forward to competing. We are very excited to bring Fed Cup tennis to Hawaii for the first time and for the fans to come cheer us on.”

Play begins on Saturday, Feb. 6, with two singles matches featuring each country’s No. 1 player against the other country’s No. 2 player. Sunday’s schedule features two “reverse singles” matches, where the No. 1 players square off and then the No. 2 players meet, followed by the doubles match. Play on Saturday begins at 11 a.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) and on Sunday at 10 a.m. local time (3 p.m. ET). Tennis Channel will present daily coverage.

The United States holds a 3-0 record over Poland in Fed Cup. The U.S. last faced Poland in the 1990 World Group First Round in Atlanta, sweeping the tie, 3-0. The U.S., who also faced Poland in 1974 and 1980, has never lost an individual match in Fed Cup to Poland. This will be the U.S.’s first home tie since 2014 in St. Louis, as the team competed on the road in Argentina and Italy in 2015.

World No. 10 Williams, 35, posted her first Top 10 season since 2010 last year, winning three WTA titles and reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and US Open. In 2013, she re-entered the Top 20 for the first time since revealing that she had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder, following the 2011 US Open. Williams holds a 21-4 overall record in Fed Cup competition, including 17-2 in singles. In 2015, she joined sister Serena on the team that defeated Argentina in Buenos Aires in the Fed Cup World Group II First Round; her second singles win clinched the tie. She was also a member of the title-winning team in 1999. Williams is a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and has won 48 career WTA singles titles. She has been ranked No. 1 in both singles and doubles. In Olympic play, she has won three gold medals in doubles (with Serena) in 2000, 2008 and 2012, and she captured the singles gold medal in 2000.

World No. 26 Stephens, 22, is coming off a tournament title, the second of her career, at the 2016 Australian Open tune-up event in Auckland, New Zealand. She won her first WTA title in 2015 in Washington D.C. Stephens’ breakout came at the 2013 Australian Open, where she defeated Serena Williams en route to the semifinals. At 19 years, 10 months, 3 days old, Stephens was the youngest American to reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal since Williams reached the 2000 Wimbledon semifinals at 18 years, 9 months, 8 days old. Stephens also advanced to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2013 to peak at No. 11 in the world that October. Stephens has played in three Fed Cup ties for the U.S., the last coming in 2014, and holds a 1-2 record in singles and 1-1 record in doubles. She is the daughter of the late New England Patriots running back John Stephens.

CoCo Vandeweghe (Photo: Craig Glover)

World No. 42 Vandeweghe, 24, advanced to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2015 for her career-best result; she also advanced to the third round of the 2015 Australian Open to peak at No. 32 in the world in February 2015.Vandeweghe won her first WTA title in 2014 in ‘S-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, and reached her first pro final in 2012 at the Emirates Airline US Open Series event in Stanford as a qualifier, losing to Serena Williams in the title match. Vandeweghe has also had success in doubles, advancing to the semifinals at the 2015 US Open and the quarterfinals at the 2016 Australian Open. She was named to the U.S. Fed Cup team for the 2010 final versus Italy and for the 2015 World Group II First Round in Argentina, where she played singles and doubles. As a junior player, Vandeweghe won the 2008 US Open girls’ singles title. Vandeweghe’s mother, Tauna, was a member of the U.S. national team in both swimming and volleyball, and her uncle is former NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe.

World No. 63 Mattek-Sands, 30, is being named to her first Fed Cup team since 2011. In 2015, Mattek-Sands won the Australian Open and French Open women’s doubles titles (with Lucie Safarova) and the French Open mixed doubles title (with Mike Bryan). At the 2012 Australian Open, Mattek-Sands teamed with Horia Tecau to win her first Grand Slam title in mixed doubles. She is currently ranked a career-high No. 3 in the world in doubles.Mattek-Sands has been one of the U.S.’s most consistent performers over the past decade, playing in 14 US Opens and reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2008 and the French Open in 2013 for her career-best Grand Slam results. Overall, she holds 17 WTA doubles titles and five USTA Pro Circuit singles titles. In 2011, she was ranked a career-high No. 30 in the world in singles before being sidelined by a rotator cuff injury. Mattek-Sands holds a 3-0 record in Fed Cup doubles and a 2-6 record in singles. In the 2010 Fed Cup semifinal, with the U.S. trailing Russia 2-1, Mattek-Sands won the fourth singles match to force the decisive doubles rubber and then partnered with Liezel Huber to win the doubles match and clinch a spot in the final for the U.S. Mattek-Sands then went on to face Italy in the 2010 final—the United States’ last appearance in a Fed Cup final.

The United States leads all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles, the last coming in 2000. The U.S. is 37-6 all-time in Fed Cup ties played at home and holds an overall 144-36 record. Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 101 nations taking part in 2016. For more information, including access to player and historical Fed Cup records, please go to www.usta.com/fedcup orwww.fedcup.com. Follow the U.S. Fed Cup Team on Twitter @USFedCupTeam. Wilson is the official ball of the U.S. Fed Cup Team.

After a very, very, very interesting article about Camila Giorgi’s, no, Sergio Giorgi’s woes, I swore I wouldn’t let that tarnish my observations of the man.

I was sure he’d be in Cleveland the second they announced that Giorgi would be playing for the Italian Fed Cup Team.

SERGIO! SERGIO!

Like a fly on the wall, I observed Signor Giorgi this weekend. He guards his daughter and adores her, as much as I think I would do if my little girl ever becomes a WTA pro. He was never far from her side and he even showed up at all of her press conferences.

So I like the guy.

But he acts likes he’s never been to a tennis match before. On Saturday, I watched him take a photo of Camila leaning over the front row with an on-court ball boy while a point was being played in the Knapp-McHale match.

I didn’t get a photo of that.

On Sunday, with Knapp about to wrap up a Fed Cup victory for Italy, he was overcome with some other pressing matter during Knapp’s penultimate service game.

He stood and chatted with some of the Italian hitting partners.

Then, when the hitting partners had the good sense to sit down, he continued to stand and chat while Knapp went about her business 10 feet away.

That is my story.

—S. Fogleman

Steve Fogleman is Editor of TennisEastCoast.com, a Mid-Atlantic based tennis website. He is in Cleveland, Ohio covering the Fed Cup tie between USA and Italy for Tennis Panorama News.

There’s nothing worse than that feeling when you’ve been caught in a fib by Mom.

The Mom in this case is US Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez.

Veteran Freelancer Sandra Harwitt is the Helen Thomas of the tennis press (before the White House correspondent lost it). Today, she mentioned to Fernandez–almost in passing–that Stephens was playing in Doha. In fact, she’s scheduled tomorrow against Petra Cetkovska.

Fernandez countered, “You sure Sloane’s in Doha? She had a wrist injury”. El Capitan was clearly caught off-guard by the news. After all, she has been quite busy for the last week.

As you may remember, Stephens decided against participating in the Fed Cup tie due to a wrist injury two weeks ago.

Diplomatically-yet-not-so-cryptically, she added the following:

I respect and I admire my team’s decision to play Fed Cup over Doha.

It’s tough. There’s tournaments every week, there’s points to be won every week. Fed Cup comes not very often.

So, if you can make this a priority, I think it’s incredible and I think you get a lot out of it. As a player, it’s some of my fondest memories.

But I understand the challenges. And that was one of Venus’ challenges.

You have to make a decision on what’s your priorities and what’s important to you.

Don’t you hate it when Mom talks like that? She didn’t scold you, but she did. Just a little bit.

Steve Fogleman is Editor of TennisEastCoast.com, a Mid-Atlantic based tennis website. He is in Cleveland, Ohio covering the Fed Cup tie between USA and Italy for Tennis Panorama News.

MISTAKE ON THE LAKE: ITALY SWEEPS THE UNITED STATES IN DAY 1 FED CUPSteve Fogleman, reporting for Tennis Panorama News (TennisPanorama.com)

Italian Pep Squad

Team Italy blanked the USA on Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio, to take a 2-0 lead in Fed Cup first round action.

Christina McHale played a horrendous first set, ceding second serves to Knapp. Knapp’s powerful backhand threatened to make the match a runaway for the Italian. McHale settled down in the second and broke twice to level the score at 6-4.

The ultimate result was a big bang for Italy with a victory by Karin Knapp in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. McHale ran her Fed Cup career record to 5-3 with the loss.

After the match, McHale admitted that “by giving her that lead she really relaxed and started playing much better.”

The Italian team was especially loud and supportive. Karin Knapp acknowledged that she feeds off of them and predicted that they would feed off of her win.

Karin Knapp

“We are not a lot, but we are loud. They helped me”, she said. “They gave me confidence”.

“If I get the point, maybe Camila goes on the court a little relaxed.”

Maybe you’re right, Karin Knapp.

As predicted by Knapp, Camila Giorgi did come out relaxed…and focused.

Giorgi thrashed Madison Keys 6-2, 6-1, notching a victory for the Italian in her first Fed Cup rubber. Keys seemed to be confused and having one of those days, and she was unable to hold serve on a regular basis.

Giorgi said it did help her composure knowing that her nation was already on the board before she hit her first ball in a Fed Cup.

Camila Giorgi

Keys summed it up best. “She was playing amazingly. I can only control so many things. Great job to her today”, she said.

The Americans are now in danger of losing a fourth straight tie to the Italian Team dating back ten years. They’re 0-10 in ties where they’ve started with a pair of singles losses.

But US Captain Mary Joe Fernandez has every reason to believe that this team, at least on paper, should have a realistic shot at pulling a sweep of their own tomorrow. I agree.

Steve Fogleman is Editor of TennisEastCoast.com, a Mid-Atlantic based tennis website. He is in Cleveland, Ohio covering the Fed Cup tie between USA and Italy for Tennis Panorama News.

FUN FACT: Riske is the only regarded WTA player who lists Washington, DC as her address. But she’ll be filling out a change of address form sometime soon.

She’ll head to Toronto to rejoin her coach, Yves Boulais, who she followed to the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland a year ago. She will train full-time in Canada. Boulais left Maryland and returned to College Park late last year. She credits him for muchof her success.
“I feel like my game has transformed into something I can build on. It’s really exciting and I think the best is yet to come.”